As Hollywood figures out ways to make its DVDs and Blu-rays more attractive to consumers who are gravitating more toward digital platforms for their TV shows and movies, Sony and Panasonic are about to give studios yet another disc to embrace and promote. The two companies have paired up to jointly develop a next-generation standard for optical discs that will be able to hold at least 300GB of recorded material (a typical Blu-ray disc for a film holds 50GB). Sony and Panasonic hope to release the first version of the discs by the end of 2015.

(Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp plans to shut down its sole European solar cell plant next March and dismiss about 500 workers at the factory, the Nikkei reported. The Hungarian factory will end production in September, leaving the company with one solar cell plant each in Japan's Osaka and Shiga prefectures and another in Malaysia, the business newspaper said. Equipment from the Hungarian facility will be transported to the other plants, the daily said. The European solar energy market is dominated by Chinese suppliers such as Yingli Green Energy . The market has been shrinking due to duties imposed by the European Union on imports of Chinese solar panels.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp said it will boost domestic production of washing machines and other appliances to half of its overall output from about a third should the yen weaken to 105 to the dollar, reversing a strategy of shifting production offshore. At 105 yen or lower it will cost less for Panasonic to build appliances it sells in Japan rather than importing them from factories abroad, Kazunori Takami, the head of the appliance business, said at a press briefing in Osaka.

Sony.com | $5,000-$25,000 While Ultra High Definition 4K TVs were first introduced at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony has become the first hardware maker to ship its new line of screens through its Bravia brand. The move is significant because the TV biz is eager to prop up sluggish sales of flatscreens. 4K could very well be the next-generation technology that will give the needed boost. That's especially true as more consumers opt for TV sets larger than 40 inches.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp said it will cut around 5,000 workers from its automotive and industrial division in a bid to bolster its operating profit margin over the next three years to a 5 percent minimum set by the company's president, Kazuhiko Tsuga. The division, which covers automotive components, semiconductors, production machinery and other devices, employs 110,000 people, around a third of Panasonic's workforce. The business is at the forefront of Tsuga's strategy to shift Panasonic away from consumer electronics to building gadgets and machinery it sells to other companies.

TOKYO, May 24 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp and U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) are among those expected to bid for Panasonic Corp's healthcare business, financial sources with knowledge of the matter said. Panasonic is looking to raise as much as $1 billion by selling shares in the healthcare unit, whose products include blood sugar monitoring equipment, hearing aids and electronic medical record-keeping systems. The company, which is being advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the sale, has set a deadline of Monday for first-round bids, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bidding is not public.